Thoughts of an activist lawyer

My Response to Edwin Lacierda’s tirades

Let me start by saying that the conduct of Secretary Lacierda yesterday, his resort to name calling, and gutter behavior is sad and lamentable. Secretary Lacierda should be reminded that when he speaks as a Presidential spokesperson, he does so on behalf of the President. His conduct and language did not give dignity to the Office of The President.

At issue here is justice for the 58 families who lost their loved ones in the most gruesome manner last November 23, 2009. At issue here too is the 32 counts of affronts on press freedom since the killing of the 32 media victims of the massacre are separate affronts on the freedom of the press. At issue here is whether one of the masterminds in this massacre should be allowed to go scot free in exchange for information that would pin down GMA, but have nothing to do with the massacre itself.

When I singled out both Secretaries Robredo and Lacierda, I did so because of a firm conviction that a criminal suspect in the country’s worst massacre should not have access to the President of the land. There is a criminal prosecution where the state, through the DOJ, is acting as the prosecutor of the accused. What business do Robredo and Lacierda have in making contacts with the accused outside of the courtroom-where there already is a full-blown hearing pending in the courts? Worse, Zaldy Ampatuan still has to be arraigned because of the pendency of a petition with the Court of Appeals where he is still questioning his inclusion as an accused in the criminal case. Palace officials, especially Secretary Lacierda, himself a lawyer, should, know that anything that he says may have an impact on the on-going proceedings at the CA. Our worst fear is that the Justices of the CA may read Lacierda’s and Robredo’s actuations to mean that the Palace already considers Zaldy as an asset. This may affect their decision in the pending petition.

I stress furthermore that because of the pendency of the criminal case and the CA petition, no one in the palace, specially a spokesperson or the DILG Secretary, should take cognizance of this matter. This issue is within the jurisdiction of the DOJ because it is the only agency tasked both with the prosecution of the criminal case and in opposing the CA Petition.

We maintain that Zaldy’s recent antics and the information that he has been releasing forms part of a well-orchestrated campaign to exonerate Zaldy from the murder charges. Proof of this is the statement of Atty Sigfrid Fortun, counsel for Andal Sr., that it was wrong for Justice Secretary Leila De Lima to reject Zaldy’s testimony before hearing what he has to say. This is not the conduct expected from the lawyer of a father about to be implicated by his son.

We also reiterate our concern that the Ampatuans may have regained their influence in Malacanang through Lacierda and Robredo. While we were in the dark on how the dreaded clan may have succeeded at penetrating the P Noy administration, the statement sand actuations of Lacierda now explains how this has happened. Lacierda should know that Zaldy precisely wants a bridge to the President only because he wants something in return for his exposes. It is naïve for anyone to think otherwise. Our position: Zaldy should speak the truth if he wants to. But this should not have an impact on his culpability on the country’s worse massacre.

Post navigation

15 comments on “My Response to Edwin Lacierda’s tirades”

I am hoping, Harry, that the Palace will act the same way when it negated the Garcia plea-bargain arrangement. Zaldy A. will say and agree to anything to save his ass. Unless he has solid proof, whatever he says is suspect.

Why are all Philipino officials so duplicitous; are there no men of honour in the Philippines, only a long line of pathetic little men overcome by the smell of corruption and no idea what decent public policy or public administration is. Are all Philipino men of integrity already dead.
Is there a word that means TRUTH in the Philipino language or is it an unknown concept or an impossible translation.

MY DEAR am simonsbd, TRUTH DO NOT SET US FREE BUT A GOOT LAWYER DOES.
If you want to go scot-free you have to be rich and tried in the Philippines.
If you want real justice go to America.
That is why Nora Aunor, General Garcia&Sons and Manny Pacquiao hire great White American Lawyers than Filipino-American lawyers.

I agree with your observation Harry. Lacierda and Robredo’s statements has the weight of Pnoy’s concurrence that will surely affect the CA decision on Zaldy Ampaatuan’s petition for exclusion in the massacre, While GMA’s cheating in 2004 is important to be exposed it should be address in a different forum.

Lacierda and Robredo are acting in the best prevailing interest of benign0_The_Turd to make him happy to snare AT LAST his constant nemesis, Gloria Makapal-Arroyo because this is the prime purpose of Benign0’s presidency, GET ME GLORIA DEAD OR ALIVE AND GIVE ME A WITNESS TO SHOW-AND-TELL. Because currently they do not have anything on Gloria, no evidence, no forensics, nothing at all except Affidavits-of-guilt and biased witness accounts to please the power that be.
Benigno is in dire need of someone to put Gloria against the wall and Lacierda and Robredo understood this the reason why they wanted Ampatuan to become State Witness to make it easy for the moro-moro invistigation and accusation against Gloria.
Were this in America, only tabloid newspaper would publish all the tsimis that went out to the Philippine newspapers as press releases.

If Lacierda and Robredo’s ruse went thru, they’d get a pat in the back by Benigno for reading his minds without ordering them. To understand Lacierda and Robred’s action is to understand Filipino psyche that cause corruption in the Philippines.

To those who comments that there is no evidence against Gloria to pin her down maybe considered naive. She was never indicted in her presidency for obvious reason that is why there was never any evidence presented and during her impeachment the evidence presented were not considered. Now that she is out of power watch the avalanche of evidence. My god yun ba namang Hello Garci eh hindi pa ebidensiya at saka yong litrato ni bunye na may hawak na dalawang tape. Only in da pilipins.

GMA is ready to answer the charges with her lawyer. Gloria Makapal-Arroyo has already spin her yarn so tight that prosecutors will go home with their englsichtzes between their legs. Many thanks to the pagarparings oblivious clueless irresponsible media and Philippine beaurucracy. In America they do not make pagarparings in public. They want their findings in secret to catch the perpetrators in their lies and not jeopardize invistigation and prosecution. In the Philippines pagarparings is the norm when the prosecutors, lawyers, supreme court justices are foreign-educated in ivy-schools in America. LOOK FILIPINOS CAN BE TAUGHT BUT CANNOT LEARN. They have attention deficit and learning disability disorders.
The Ampatuan and GMA and Marcos and ZTE prosecution based on guilt-by-affidavits and absence of forensics perpetuates charges-by-gossip.
There will be more charges-by-gossip to come. Ampatuan should be the vanguard and exemplar of justice but it seems gossipy witnesses is the norm. So there will be no REAL JUSTICE IN THE PHILIPPINES AMERICAN STYLE

What are you, Renato Pacifico? You want to sound learned but the truth is, you know nothing about your country. Only an idiot would dare say that there is no evidence against GMA. As for the illusion of democracy that you are talking about, it is obvious that you do not really know that the so-called “democracy” existing here was brought by your beloved Americans.

You should go back to college and read Renato Constantino and IP Soliongco’s articles. The point here is that: there are 58 victims whose families are yearning for justice. In the search for justice, government wants to commit another injustice.

Whooopeee ! Ampatuan will go scot-free as long as he becomes incredible State Witness to get Gloria Makapal-Arroyo over 55 dead bodies. Isn’t Benign0_The_Turd Great ? It’s in the papers today, 7/18/2011 !
Could there be a revolution or a coup-de-t’at ? Ampatuan is already GUILTY-BY-POPULAR-DEMAND and a stackfull of affidavits-of-guilt and confessions NOTHING ON FORENSICS. Forensics is so foreign to Filipino that they even Google it for its meanings.